Former boyfriend arrested in fatal stabbing

Times Staff Writer
Published November 16, 2003

TAMPA - Police late Friday arrested the ex-boyfriend of a Holiday Inn Express employee who was fatally stabbed Monday while she worked at the motel on N Dale Mabry Highway. Police had been looking for Lazaro Oquendo because Luz Milagros Soler named him as her assailant just before she died of the stab wounds.

Oquendo, 43, turned himself in to an officer during a traffic stop about 10 p.m. at Tampania and Hillsborough avenues, police said. He is being held at the Orient Road jail without bond on a charge of first-degree murder. Oquendo has not admitted to the murder, police Capt. Bob Guidara said.

Jail records show Oquendo has been arrested three times since February on traffic-related charges.